Birthday Shopping

I've given up on trying to buy present for my kids and my grandkids. So instead I set up a date to take them shopping and let them pick what they want.

Lincoln has always been my hardest kid to buy for but this buying trip was actually fairly easy. We had our annual lunch at Taco Bell where Lincoln showed me how he can eat the hottest hot sauce they offer. I, on the other hand, have trouble with their mild sauce. We then headed to Dick's for new shoes, a shirt, a rubic's Chiefs cube, socks and sunglasses. We finished up at Target and headed home. While he had the biggest smile on his face, I had to come home and take a nap.

Lincoln's 9th Birthday

Birthday number 9. Why do I remember so much of his birth like it was yesterday?

Melissa has this tradition of taking a picture of her kids the night before their birthday. Like magically they'll have this great change overnight. Maybe in a few weeks it will happen to me...only I'll look years younger!

We had a family birthday party at Fun House Pizza. What a place to have a kid's birthday party. The adults sit around the table and talk while the kids go through rolls of quarters. Best birthday party ever. Happy Birthday to my grandson, Lincoln. What a pleasure it is to be your Ma!

Trip to Vegas

What better way to get out of the house than a trip to Vegas to visit my friends. This time I stayed at the Red Rock Casino and Spa. It's a little northwest of the strip in Summerlin, NV, but it was gorgeous and HUGE! There were at least 5 upscale restaurants, a bowling alley, a movie theater, a food court, an arcade for kids and many, many slot machines!

Of course, as usual, I forgot to take pictures of my friends but I did get a somewhat nice picture of the Red Rock mountains outside my VIP suite. Joe, my casino host, suggested this would be a great place to bring the family. Now who wants to bring kids to Las Vegas 🎰

Lincoln's Flag Football Super Bowl

Lincoln's flag football team, the Vikings, made it into the Super Bowl again this year.

While they didn't win, they made a big come back in the 4th quarter but it wasn't quite enough to beat the other team. I was in Las Vegas so I missed the game. Sure is a good thing I didn't put a sports bet on them 😄

Halloween

Besides watching Goldie for a couple of hours while Melissa does school activities with the older kids, my Halloween will be spent passing out candy but only until I either run out of candy or it hits 9:00 pm. Then the porch light goes out and I go to bed.

Violet, Lincoln, Hazel and Goldie have already had many different Halloween parties. This is from Haunt the Halls at Lincoln and Hazel's school. Melissa made the monster decorations for in front of Hazel's school door.

Then there was the traditional carving of the pumpkins at the Taylor house. I think some of the kids are carving their own pumpkins instead of Jamie having to carve all of them. Trick or Treat!

2024 Presidential Election

Jamie and I are going to be out of town on November 5th so we headed to the Independence square to vote early.

No one in line, very seamless and out in less than 10 minutes. I hate to even think of the lines that will form on the 5th at regular voting places. From what I've heard, I lot of people are voting early although the lines at getting longer. Hopefully the country won't break out in riots as some are predicting. I'll be in Las Vegas. One of the most crowded places in America. I'll probably just stay inside the casino and let the world fall part without me! 😳

A Visit From Michele and the Pumpkin Patch

Michele made a trip to St Louis by plane to visit friends, then took the Amtrak to Lee's Summit.

Teresa was on standby to go to HiBoy and pick up tenderloins and onion rings when Michele's train arrived.

Little did they know I had a few Halloween decorations I needed help setting up. Wasn't the most fun thing to do on your vacation but at least it was something. 

The next day we met up with the Taylors and went to the pumpkin patch. the Pumpkin Pad in Lone Jack had a few more activities than years before and kept us pretty busy.

The best part was sitting down for a snack of mini donuts and water. It was pretty hot for a day in October.

After a few hours we said good-bye to the Taylors and headed to Smoke Brewery for a little barbecue and beer flights. That's about as much as we could handle in one day.

Time seem to fly when Michele is here and I was surprised when a few days later a received a bouquet of flowers. For a while I thought I had a secret admirer but they were a thank you from Michele. Almost better than a secret admirer!

Jefferson Starship & Marshall Tucker

Teresa and I went to see Jefferson Starship and The Marshall Tucker Band at the Folly Theater. A small venue but I like smaller venues.

My favorite was Jefferson Starship. They started with songs from the 70's when they were called Jefferson Airplane. I didn't recognize the songs. Then they started singing songs from the 80's. There were a few that I didn't realize were their songs like We Built This City on Rock and Roll. While only one person was from the original band, they were very good.

Then came The Marshall Tucker Band. The original guy and founder of the band, Doug Gray, was still with them. He's 76 years old. Thank goodness the other members of the band were good and could carry him. I thought it was funny that they only played for an hour but it was getting close to 10:00 pm and the crowd of 300+ was starting to thin. Bedtime for us oldies. All in all, a pretty good concert.

A Couple Hours with Goldie

While Melissa went to her doctor's appointment, Goldie came to stay with me.

We first had to go check out the path to the pond to see the goose poop. What is kid's fascination with poop???? The goose poop was all cleaned up and Goldie insisted I did it. At least we didn't have to step around it while slowing going down the hill to the pond.

Then we spent the rest of our time playing Play Doh. This is about the only thing that Goldie will spend more than 5 minutes playing. I'm going to have to buy some new Play Doh tools. The few that I have just aren't enough.

Grandparent's Day

We celebrated Grandparent's Day watching Lincoln play football.

Lincoln scored a touchdown and that was present enough for me. My shirt reflects Lincoln's football team, the Vikings. But I'm a Chiefs girl through and through!

Monarch's Baseball Game

One of the few events I do with my retirement group is go to the Monarch's baseball game.

I try and recruit Teresa to go with me so I don't have to make that long drive to the stadium out by the Legends by myself. While it wasn't raining, the humidity was about to kill us. I got to see a few of my former KCP&L friends but next year I may consider passing on this event. Sweat and I don't seem to get along.

First Day of School

Well the new school year has started and mothers across the country are tying to get that first day of school pic. I've even seen commercials where companies are using this first day of school pic movement in their ads. It's hilarious. It takes about 25 shots in order to get that one almost perfect shot.

Hazel starts kindergarten. Lincoln is going into the 3rd grade. And Violet is going to middle school starting 6th grade.

It's a good thing Hazel was able to bring all her school supplies to school yesterday or this backpack might have tipped her over.

While Lincoln wasn't that excited about going back to school, he sure was happy with his new classroom, teacher and desk. Let's hope the school year goes smoothly. Meanwhile, Melissa will be at home with Goldie. That's a class in itself! 

Another Evening with the Kids While Violet Gets Contacts

I love watching the kids during lunch or dinner time. It makes the time go quicker!

Before going to dinner, we decided to spend a little time at the park.

The weather was amazing and very crowded.

Parents were probably taking advantage of one more day with the kids before school starts.

I had the kids because Violet was at the doctor practicing putting in her new contacts. I almost didn't recognize her when she got home. I can't believe she's growing up so fast.

Getting to Know Your School

So many things have changed trying to get kids adjusted to going to school. I think when I was going to grade school, Mom just loaded us in the car the first day of school and we were on our own.

Violet is going to middle school this year. There's a few more kids in her class from other grade schools merging to middle school but to me it's the same friends going into a different building. I can understand having a "dry run" so she can find her locker and classrooms on the first day of school.

Hazel is starting kindergarten. Hazel may seem shy and unsure but she can handle anything (except taking pics). Her introduction to kindergarten included popsicles on the playground.

Goldie filled in taking a picture in front of Hazel's locker.

And Lincoln....well he could care less about going to school. But another school year starts soon.

Evening with the Kids

After the volleyball uniform fiasco, there was a pool party for the girls. Hazel and Goldie had been running fevers but I just couldn't take any more volleyball mom drama so I chose to watch the kids and let Melissa take Violet to her party.

The kids didn't seem sick to me. We walked down to the pond being extra careful not to step in the goose poop.

Lincoln would have thrown every rock into the pond but I limited him to any rock that wasn't bigger than his hand. I'm sure the neighbors were watching out their windows wondering why those kids were throwing rocks in the pond. They complain about everything.

Then we came home and played with the ball in the back yard. This was a total of watching kids for about 7 hours in one day. And I thought I was retired! 

Volleyball Parent Meeting and Picking out Uniforms

Melissa had a conflict so she asked me to take Violet to figure sizes for her uniform, shoes, knee pads, hoodie - much more than I was prepared to handle. You'd be surprised how many different things the girls need in order to play volleyball. Shorts, knees pads, sweat pants, 4-5 different shirts, shoes, etc. There's exactly one of each size on a table and some mothers were hoarding shirts and other things. There was one mother that saw my anxiety and began helping me. This was much more than I planned for. I'm still wondering if I got the right sizes.

When we got done you had to stand in line to check out. I was in the wrong line, then stood in another line that was wrong then finally got the right line. One more thing that shows why we have kids when we're young. I had to come home and take a nap!

New Floor

Last month we had a monsoon that lasted 2 days. Besides the enormous amount of rain and a small piece of something getting stuck in my sump pump, my basement flooded. I wasn't too concerned about the flooding because my basement is unfinished so I'm prepared for these "Acts of God". What I didn't take into consideration was the small landing area in front of the basement door. It was carpeted and got completely soaked.

In order to prevent future problems, Teresa and I decided to replace that area with vinyl planks. It took us about 4 hours to replace but it looks like that area was meant to look like that.

I still need to caulk around the perimeter but since I can't see it, I keep forgetting. I need to add that task to my list!

Wine Tasting

I am by no means a wine connoisseur. I know there's red and white wines but haven't really studied them enough to have a favorite. I do know I'm not a fan of red wines. Mostly because I prefer cold drinks and red wines are usually served at room temperature.

My friend, Monica, has a membership to Cooper's Hawk and they offer a free wine tasting each month. You're given a sheet to choose from different varieties. After tasting 8 different wines each about a half a small glass and then having another glass of wine while getting something to eat, I decided Moscato is my favorite or at least I think it's my favorite. I had so much wine I can't quite remember.

Lincoln, Football and My She Shed Wall

I have a part of my She Shed wall devoted to Melissa and Violet and their volleyball.

Teresa suggested I add Lincoln and my love for football to the wall. So I found a touchdown wall hanging and framed the picture of Lincoln's first touchdown along with my Kelce pennant Lincoln gave me for my birthday. There's still plenty of room for when Hazel and Goldie pick a sport!

A Trip to Black Hawk

Teresa and I made the long trek across Kansas to visit Michele in Colorado on our way to Black Hawk.

It's completely true what they say about traveling across Kansas. There's ABSOLUTELY nothing to see. I drove part of the way then Teresa took over. At least when you're driving you have something to do. But when you're not, it's so BORING!

After visiting Michele and meeting Charlie, we traveled to Black Hawk Horseshoe Casino for a couple of nights. The drive up the mountain had me eating Xanax like Tic Tacs. The signs of "Falling Rock" with just a small net up the side of the mountain was no reassurance to me that we wouldn't be crushed. Michele came up the next day for breakfast. I really wanted to walk with her and explore a little of Black Hawk but the weather kept me inside. At least that eased my Summer boredom for awhile. 

Lunch with Friends

I hardly ever see my friends that I used to work with. It's usually someone's birthday before we force ourselves to get out of the house.

I've known Regina and Robin for over 25 years and we don't see each other very often. But when we do it's like we've never been apart. Just more to talk about besides work. 

Violet Signs with the Mavs Volleyball Club

Violet has spent the past several weeks attending open gyms and private practices for 2 different volleyball clubs. She wasn't that happy with her team from last year - Invasion - and there's been a lot of interest in her from the Mavs organization.

We finally hit tryout day and she had several offers from different teams. She finally decided on the Mavs National team. The coach was talking about signing up for a National tournament in Chicago. My fingers are crossed that Chicago is the winning location. That way Michele and Courtney will be able to attend. Congratulations Violet on making this new decision.

Happy 4th of July - BOOM!

The 4th of July has never been a big holiday for me. Mostly because the fireworks don't start until after my bedtime.

But the kids love it. During the day they explode their own fireworks and at night they watch the neighbors show. One day they'll understand why Ma just wants to go to bed.

Melissa and Jamie Celebrate 18 Years of Marriage

Melissa and Jamie celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary with dinner at Cooper's Hawk.

I took Violet to her volleyball practice and Laura watched Lincoln, Hazel and Goldie. With all that free time, you'd think they would do something special. I do believe they did something they've never done by themselves....went to the car wash. These two sure are wild when they have a few hours without the kids. Happy Anniversary!

The Taylor's Go to Destin

The Taylor's headed off to Destin, Florida for their family vacation. This time with a twist.

Instead of driving all 4 kids down, staying in a motel, then heading to the beach. Melissa, Violet, Hazel and Goldie decided to fly down while Lincoln and Jamie made the long trip in the car. Violet was lucky enough to get a row to herself on the plane since Goldie is old enough to need a seat to herself.

Melissa usually sets up a photo shoot to get professional photos. I think random shots of the kids look much better than posed shots. You can't get any better than this. BTW, I was the taxi to and from the airport and the dog sitter for a week. My work is never done!!!!

Michael's Bucket List

Michael has a bucket list of visiting all the MLB stadiums. He recently returned from California and added a few more to his list. The Oakland A's stadium is getting ready to close so he wanted to make sure and add that to his list.

Next stop was Oracle Park home of the San Fransisco Giants. While he wasn't that impressed with the Oakland stadium (probably why it's closing), Oracle Park sits right on the ocean. 

What an exciting thing to have on your bucket list. Especially when you can enjoy it with friends.

Oops!

Lincoln can ride or drive just about anything a boy could ask for...skateboard, UTV, dirt bike, etc. Sometimes just driving can get a bit boring so he gets a little more daring.

Climbing this dirt pile caused a turnover of the 4-wheeler.

Luckily he was well protected with all his safety gear. He was a little shook up but no injuries. Will he try this again? My guess is "probably"!